Highly popular among Canadian adults, 99% ate a bakery product, be it bread or a sweet baked good, at some point in the three months leading to March 2015. Due to the category’s universal penetration, opportunities for growth either lie in the further development of specific categories such as ethnic-inspired options that include foods like naan or in boosting the frequency at which bakery products are eaten. Some 35% of Canadians ate a bakery product on a daily basis during the three months looked at. While this is notable, it leaves 65% of the population either turning to the category less often or not at all during that period.

Despite its universal adoption, volume sales of bread and bread products showed an overall volume sales decline between 2010 and 2014, though the latest year (2014 vs 2013) saw a return to modest growth. Volume sales of sweet bakery remain flat on average over the past five years and in the latest year. In order to return bakery products to sustained growth, identifying pain points for consumers and which consumer groups are more susceptible to them is required.

Just under half of consumers agree bread is important to maintaining a healthy diet. While this suggests opportunity to improve perceptions around nutrition and the category, when asked which factors are most important to consumers when making a purchase, only a small percentage of consumers cite gluten-free. Freshness and flavour dominate all other considerations. When it comes to nutrition-focused considerations, four in 10 consumers cite ‘all-natural/no artificial ingredients’ as holding sway, an area where innovation is evident based in the percentage growth in packaging claims. In short, a focus on lesser consumer concerns is destined to generate limited ROI.

Bread manufacturers appear to be charting the right course when it comes to making consumers feel better about the bakery products they eat as nearly six in 10 agree that products fortified with healthy ingredients make them feel better about what they are eating. This particularly resonates with women, who tend to eat bakery products less frequently and consider the category less essential to maintaining a healthy diet.

This report identifies other consumer insights and provides perspective on how to action against them to guide more targeted decisions for different consumer groups. This includes information around usage, occasions when bakery products are eaten, general purchase behaviours, factors that are most important to consumers at the point of decision and general attitudes to facilitate exposition and context grounded in hard data.

This report examines the market for consumption of bakery products in Canada sampling consumers who ate bakery products across multiple formats. Respondents were asked if they had eaten foods from one or more of the following categories over the three months leading to March 2015:

• Packaged branded sliced bread

• Buns (eg hot dog buns, hamburger buns)

• Ethnic options (eg naan, taco/tortillas, croissants, etc)

• Bagels

• Fresh baked non-branded loaves (non-sliced)

• English muffins

• Pita bread

• Frozen or refrigerated breads to bake at home (eg loaves, dough, etc)

• Sweet baked goods (eg donuts, cake, muffins, cookies, pies, etc)

Mintel conducted online consumer research in March 2015 using a nationally representative sample of 2,004 internet users aged 18+. This was supplemented by online qualitative research as indicated throughout the report.